circuly vs. Firmhouse
Which Shopify subscription app is right for your subscription business?
Quick verdict
Both Firmhouse and circuly are Shopify subscription apps, and both are built in Europe with rental and lease models in mind. This is the closest comparison on this list — the real difference comes down to how rental capability is priced and how deep the physical-product tooling goes.
Firmhouse is a European recurring-revenue platform supporting product subscriptions, rentals & lease, try & buy, and B2B pay-on-account.
Pricing: Base plan from €125/month + 1.25% of invoiced revenue — but rental & lease, try & buy, and pre-paid plans require the €399/month Advanced plan. Custom pricing available for high-volume merchants.
circuly Subscription & Rental app for Shopify is built for businesses with physical and consumer durable products that operate a subscription, rental or lease model for those products. circuly is built around core features like asset tracking, return management, buy-out flows.
Pricing: Free to install & run up to 25 subscriptions. Paid plans start from $90/month up to $499/month, with rental and subscription both included from the first paid tier. Free trial available for all tiers.
If you need rental or lease on Shopify, the practical question isn't just which platform supports it — it's which one gives you that capability without forcing a jump to a €399+/month plan.
This guide is written for merchants who sell physical products on Shopify and want an honest picture of where each platform fits, and where each one falls short when it comes to operating a subscription-based business model for physical products. Firmhouse and circuly are both European companies serving European (and international) merchants, so this comparison focuses less on geography and more on how each platform packages rental capability, and how deep the operational tooling goes once you're using it.
Who each app is built for
Before comparing features, let's first understand the fundamental difference in what these two apps were designed to do.
circuly is primarily built for:
- Bikes, e-bikes & scooters
- Baby & kids' goods
- Consumer electronics & appliances
- Medical equipment & devices
- Furniture & home goods
- Sports & fitness equipment
- Any product that ships, gets used, and returns
- Brands running rentals, PaaS, subscribe-to-own
- Try-before-buy models
- Businesses with physical asset inventory to manage
circuly can also be used for:
- Consumable & replenishment subscription
- Subscription boxes and bundles
- Subscribe-to-own or try-before-buy
- Membership subscriptions
- Digital & service subscriptions
Firmhouse is primarily built for:
- European merchants running product subscriptions
- Rental & lease models — available on the Advanced ($399+/mo) plan
- Try & Buy models — available on the Advanced plan
- B2B pay-on-account subscriptions
- Merchants who need iDEAL, Bancontact, SEPA and other EU-local payment methods
- High-volume merchants needing multi-market & multi-currency support (Custom plan)
Feature comparison: Firmhouse vs. circuly
circuly on Shopify
circuly is now a native Shopify app
circuly has operated as a subscription management platform for physical product businesses for several years, building an enterprise customer base across Europe. Brands like Bike Club, Yuno, and StrollMe have used circuly to scale complex physical product subscription operations.
In 2025, circuly brought that operational depth directly into Shopify with a native app, available on the Shopify App Store, built around Shopify's native checkout, customer accounts, and theme architecture. Shopify merchants can now access circuly's physical product subscription infrastructure without leaving the Shopify ecosystem they've already built around.
For a Shopify merchant, this means:
- Install circuly directly from the Shopify App Store — no custom builds or external platform required
- Add subscription options to product pages via native Shopify theme blocks — no code needed
- Customers check out through the standard Shopify checkout, including Shop Pay
- Subscriber management sits within Shopify customer accounts — familiar to your team and your customers
- All of circuly's physical product operational capabilities — asset tracking, buy-outs, returns, invoicing — available through the same Shopify admin your team already uses
- Connect to the broader Shopify app ecosystem, including Klaviyo and ERP tools, without fragmented data
Pricing comparison: What to expect from each platform
Both platforms use a base fee plus a percentage of revenue. The key difference is what each tier actually unlocks:
#1. circuly
- Getting started: Free to install.
- As you scale: Paid plans start from $90/month up to $499/month; custom pricing available for larger operations
- Transaction fee: A commission applies on subscription revenue — decreases as you move up plans
- Free trial: 14-day free trial available on paid plans
#2. Firmhouse
- Getting started (Base): €125/month + 1.25% over invoiced revenue — product subscriptions and pay-by-invoice only, no rental or lease
- As you scale (Advanced): €399/month + 1% over invoiced revenue — this is the plan that unlocks rental & lease, Try & Buy, pre-paid subscriptions, and advanced analytics
- Custom: Volume-discounted pricing for high-volume merchants, with multi-market and multi-PSP support
- Free trial: 14-day free trial on both plans
